Making bouquets out of wildflowers: For drivers' safety, city cuts plants in park and repurposes them

When the city of Albuquerque decided in June to plant a pollination garden at Altura Park, one of the nearby residents told Master Gardener Michael Griego it would be a “cold day in hell” if any of the flower seeds they planted there would ever grow.

The ground was hard, almost like clay, according to Griego. Any water poured over the soil would simply run off. Not the ideal conditions for growing a garden.

“We had to mix the soil with new soil and rebuild the water system,” he said.

Planting a mixture of cosmos, marigolds and other seeds, the city cautiously waited to see what would come of this endeavor.

Fast forward nearly four months, and the cold day in hell had arrived. Seeds had sprung into long, winding green stems with colorful flowers exploding out of them. A mixture of white, pink and orange flooded the garden. Not bad for a garden with soil that was once too hard even for water.

But this growth was not all good news. The flowers, particularly the cosmos, had grown so tall, they were restricting the views of drivers at a nearby intersection. This was a safety concern for residents and drivers in the neighborhood west of Washington NE, between Indian School and Constitution.

To rectify this issue, a group of city employees, led by Griego, spent Wednesday morning cutting down the flowers in order to improve the drivers’ sight lines. The cut flowers were not discarded, but rounded up and made into bouquets that were given to local community members and to the seniors at the nearby Highland Senior Center.

“We’re making lemonade out of lemons,” said Emily Moore, marketing and communications coordinator for the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.

Photos from the city making bouquets out of wildflowers